Paddymelon

It’s been far too long since I last wrote - I hope you survived! The good news as that I’m finally back at the YWAM base, which I’m surprisingly referring to as ‘home’ now, after an amazing and life-changing two weeks camping in the Australian bush where we experience rain and thunderstorms like never before, extreme sunshine, but most importantly we experience God.

The DTS travelled to an area known as ‘Hidden Valley’. The plot of land we were all camping on was at the foot of a huge hill, surrounded by a tall, green, picturesque forest. There was a creek just a couple of minutes away – this is probably where I spent most of my time; skimming stones, swimming, drawing, relaxing or sunbathing…or sometimes all of the above.

There was also a building we referred to as ‘the shed’, which was simply a decent-sized building with three walls, a concrete floor, and a roof. This was where pretty much everything happened, including the lectures, meals, worship, meetings and other activities. It proved a favourite spot on many occasions due to some of the unbelievable stormy weather conditions we endured during our stay.

Anyway I’ll stop talking about the place and fill you in on what I actually got up to! So (apart from spending hour upon hour at the creek), we did lots of stargazing as the clear skies in the Aussie Bush made it possible to see more stars than you could wave a didgeridoo at – it was breath-takingly beautiful each night. We took part in various walks around the area, through woods, alongside rivers and up rocky hills. We were lucky enough to have a huge bonfire every night, and with an unending supply of marshmallows and sticks…well, I’ll let you figure that out.

On Saturday the 13 ^th we all took a trip to ‘the gorge’. The route to our destination included a good twenty minutes worth of off-roading, and I’ll admit I haven’t had that much fun in a long time! When we finally got there, we had to make a quick five minute trek down the side of the gorge until we reached a clearing – revealing a gorgeous view of rocks, clear water, cliff-edges and rapids. Spending a few hours there was even more fun than the off-roading; and I feel I need to confess that I did get horribly burnt in the wonderful (but punishing) sunshine, and I’m only just finishing the peeling process a week later (yes mum I know, “I’ll never learn..”) but now it’s turning into a fantastic bronze tan so it’s not all bad news.

Obviously we came into contact with a lot of Australian wildlife, including all sorts of spiders and ants, moths and butterflies, kangaroos and emus, wild cows and bulls, dragonflies and fireflies, and last but not least: (but probably my favourite) paddymelons. I know. It sounds like some type of exotic fruit, but it’s actually a small rodent that can be best described as a cross between a rabbit (in size), a kangaroo (stands on back legs, posture and limbs of a kangaroo) and a rat (grey, furry, long tail). Or for a better idea – just Google it.

Finally, with regard to my camping trip, God has done and unbelievable amount of amazing, epic, pretty much life-changing (do I use that phrase too much?) stuff. From day one, His presence was really obvious, and it continued to be that way for the whole two weeks. As always, I’m just going to hit the tip of the iceberg, so if you’d like to know any more, just get in contact and we’ll talk some more!

Wow, where do I start? Our first week of lectures in the Bush were given to us by a great guy called Mark Parker, an eccentric, authoritative, kind, focused, spirit-lead New Zealander. He challenged us to think about the Lordship of Christ and what the meant for practical Christian living. He focused a lot on consistency – living for God and worshipping Him all the time, in every circumstance, no matter what’s going on or how we ‘feel’. We don’t make Jesus Lord, we believe He is Lord, and will always be worthy of worship.

The second week of lectures were taken by our school leaders, each one gave their testimony and spoke on a subject they felt passionate about. This was great as it helped us to get to know our leaders a whole lot more, and they’re all very wise and in-tune with the Spirit of God, which means we were able to learn a lot through them.

God did a lot outside of the lectures too. I’ll quickly tell you about a few of them. On the first Thursday we all took a trip to the top of the nearest hill, with the objective to hear God speak to us. I climbed to the top of a rock overlooking Hidden Valley, and just asked God to speak to me. I was totally blown away by what He said to me – without going into specifics, He freed me from a few things from my past and gave me a couple of new promises which filled me with hope then I felt pushed to make a symbolic commitment to what had happened, which felt amazing.

The following Friday was a day where Mark Parker lead us in a 13 hour ministry time. Yes, I did just say 13 hour. It was incredible to worship God, enjoy fellowship, minister to one another, and hear from God personally. It was during that ministry time I felt re-commissioned by God into my call to lead and speak. This was something God is still working in me, and I’m loving every moment of it.

One day, we baptised five members of the DTS in the local river (the way it should be!). It was such a testament to the power of God to transform lives, to turn people around from a life filled with rubbish and hopelessness, and give them a future and a purpose, something to live for – a destiny to potentially change the world. Man I love baptisms, if you couldn’t tell.

I could go on about all the different times God spoke to me and to the group, but I’ll leave it at that for now.

I really had an amazing time camping, I’ve never laughed as much, or heard from God as much as I did in those two weeks. As much as I would have loved to stay there for the rest of the DTS – I won’t lie, mattresses, air-conditioned rooms, a local McDonalds, internet, clean clothes, and buildings. It’s good to be back. Oh and thank God I didn’t get bitten by anything! Well, apart from my tent-mate Caleb, but that’s another story.

Prayer Requests

Recovery from a long two weeks of rough sleep and plenty of physical activity
Putting into practise what was learnt from lectures
Continuing to hear from God
Remembering the promises God gave me

Don’t forget, to view photos from my trip, visit my photo album:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=176717&id=579773523&l=970dcfe5fd

Filly Mon.

Well it’s a beautiful Saturday evening; there’s a wonderful red sunset, silhouetted palm trees, a cool breeze, and good company. I think I could definitely get used to this! It’s been another fantastic week here at YWAM Reef to Outback, and this week definitely had a sense of significance in terms of the group looking forward into the future of our DTS and where it will be taking us in the near future.

We’ve all done a really good job of settling into a routine here. Everyone feels at home, we know where everything can be found, and who everyone is etc. However as soon as we were told our outreach locations and teams on Tuesday, combined with a 2-week camping trip into the Australian bush starting this weekend, that sense of security and normality was pretty much shattered, and now we are all staring the eventful and somewhat frantic future in the face. Everything’s definitely a changing. But I kind of like it. It’s exciting. And it’s a good reminder that we have lots of work to do in ‘making God known’, as we’ve already done a lot of ‘getting to know God’ over the past month.

A lot of people have been asking me what the point of this camping trip is – assuming that it’s nothing but a holiday. I’m not going to lie, I do intend on having a lot of fun whilst we’re out there, but there is actually a point to it all. I promise?

The DTS will be continuing in the ‘Lecture Phase’ in the outback, it’s pretty similar to how it works here at the base. Well, it’s just that now we have trees instead of walls, soil instead of tiled flooring, logs instead of chairs, guest-kangaroos instead of guest-speakers and unpredictable tropical weather storms instead of cool air conditioning. Why would you have it any other way!?

I don’t know much about the place we’re going, apart from we have no electricity, plenty of hills, rivers that need swimming in, all sorts of wildlife, and a large shed which is where stuff like worship happens. It would also appear that the two weeks of camping have an amazing reputation preceding it. The mixture of amazing natural scenery, incredibly close fellowship, life-changing lectures, spirit led worship, drinking hot chocolate around a bonfire whilst looking at the stars…I can’t wait!

Anyway, a quick update on the week. In lectures we’ve been reading Philemon (which our teacher decided would sound great in a Jamaican accent, rendering the book title ‘filly-mon’), and it’s been incredible. Our lecturer, Jon, walked us through all sorts of bible study techniques, basically teaching us how to: Observe, Interpret, Apply and Proclaim the scripture. My reading of the bible has been totally changed and now I’m really looking forward to get into it a lot more!

With a seamless transition of topic, I have to say goodbye now! We are being kicked out of our internet zone early, which isn’t cool! Well anyway, I wish you all a fantastic two weeks – please fill up my email and facebook inboxes whilst I’m away. I’m missing you all, but trying to pray for you just as much! So take care, and I’ll be in touch in two weeks.

Time to go see if this camping business is quite as fun as everyone is making it out to be.. I’ll let you know!

During the time it’s taken me to write this, the sky…has gone black and we’re now surrounded by a gigantic thunder storm. Man I love it here!

God bless, Matt.

Prayer Requests

Weather
Fellowship
Learning
Fun
Safety

Papua New Guinea

That's right, the results are in, and my outreach location and team have finally been decided! We don't know the specifics, but here's what i do know:

Location: Papua New Guinea

Base: Port Moresby

Team: Ania Kossar (Team Leader, S.AFRICA, 27)

Alorah Jones (USA, 18)

Brian and Jacki Crandall (USA, 25)

Deborah Graham (USA, 24)

Jarrad Pounder (AUSTRALIA, 21)

Katie Curtis (Wales UK, 21)

Matt Doherty

Tim Stewart (AUSTRALIA, 26)

AJ (Holland, 21)

Short Outreach:

March 8th - March 26th: Cairns, Australia

Long Outreach:

April 19th - May 28th: Port Moresby (and other surrounding villages), PaPua New Guinea

It's yet to settle in properly, I'm still in a bit of shock to be honest! The relief of finally knowing is huge, so that's great. I'm also very excited about the team i'm on. I'm the joint youngest, and the team is made up of mainly very head-strong people with leadership-based attributes - so it's slightly intimidating, but at the same time we all get along very well and i have full confidence that we're going to do so many amazing things together.

The sad news is that my closest friend here on the DTS, Caleb, has been placed on the second team going to PaPua New Guinea, so same country, but different mission and different location. I'm going to find it really hard, as we get along really well and have been such a huge support to each other on our journey so far, it'll be tough to say goodbye for a total of 9 weeks. It also turns out that almost all of my closer friends are on the other outreach teams too. So it's looking to be a testing time for me, but i know whole-heartedly that God is in control of this, and He will work all things together for the good of those who love Him, and have been called according to His purpose.

That makes me smile.

And on that bombshell, (oh how i miss TopGear), thank you and good night!

Love, Matt x

Prayer Request

This is a really emotional time for a some people, as obviously many have been left with questions/doubts/anxieties about their locations or teams, so your prayers for me and the team would be really appreciated right now, thank you so much.

A Go

Ok, so apart from the subject of this blog being the rumoured name of my favourite band (Anberlin)'s next album, hopefully due out in September, 'A Go' pretty much sums up an activity that took place last night, and i can definitely say that it was one of the most oddly unique experiences i've ever had!

After what had been a really pleasant day, involving beautiful weather, fantastic lectures, and a swim or two in our neighbour's pool, we were all called into the auditorium for 'outreach prep' - the scheduled evening activity. There were rumours going around that we were going to be finding out our outreach teams and locations, so there was a real vibe of anticipation and excitement around. Oh, how that changed.

One of our course leaders, Ania, called our attention to let us know straight away that tonight was not the night we would find out our teams. Then the atmosphere changed. Ania, and the rest of the leaders, assumed a very serious facial expression, and we were told that tonight we were going to be given some instructions in order to carry out an activity - we would be given these instructions once, and after that, we were on our own. More than that, there was a real weight about the situation, and no one knew what was going on. Here were the instructions she gave us:

You will leave the auditorium and go to your houses.

Do not talk.

With the one sheet provided per house, follow the packing instructions.

Pack all items listed, tidy your room, and come back to the base.

Throw the bag you packed into the back of the truck that will be parked outside the front of the base.

Once finished, be back here in the auditorium - do not talk until we say so.

You have 20 minutes.

Go.

And so, everyone stood up, and walked to the exit. Well, they walked about 3 steps and then everyone broke into a full-on sprint. The vibe in the air was now one of pure adrenaline, mixed with sheer confusion. The 'no talking' rule was broken by all as soon as we left, and we continued to break it. Everyone arrived back at their houses and the mayhem began. We frantically packed, with no time to really assess the situation seriously, we were just obeying orders. After 10 minutes of packing a list that looked scarily like a weekends worth of stuff, the vibe changed again. Now people were beginning to get frustrated, some loved the thrill of it all, some were anxious at the now slightly more real possibility that we were going somewhere.

We finished and made a mad sprint across the street for the base. Once we arrived, we noticed the seriousness of the course leaders as they watched us like hawks, not saying a word, and refusing to answer any one who spoke to them. Now we were definitely in unknown territory. We got on with the job, and made it back to the auditorium, a little sweaty (being perfectly honest), but on time.

A couple of minutes passed (which felt like a very, very long time) before Ania finally spoke. One by one, she asked people who had broken the rules that had been set forward, to stand up. After the rule 'do not talk' was brought up, we'd all failed. We were then told that none of us were qualified to go on outreach. That made us shut up!

At last, we were informed that tonight was just a test (some were relieved, I was kind of excited by the whole thing!). It was explained to us that there were lots of lessons we could learn from this experience, which gave us a really good picture of the lifestyle of missions. It's all about carrying out instructions given to you, no matter how short the time given, how unclear the final objective, how silly the instruction, no matter how frustrated you get at the leader - you need to be able to perform. Furthermore, we are expected to not just meet the standards, but to completely raise the bar. This includes doing all things with optimism, a servant-heart, a willingness to help others and with an attitude that pleases God.

The unique situation brought out a lot of characteristics in people that were otherwise hidden. So we were able to evaluate ourselves and see how we could do things better next time.

Was it a test of patience? Of character? Of respect? Of nerve?

Yeah.

Worth it?

Totally.

So that was last night! I do enjoy telling stories, but for now that's all i have time for. So i'll leave you with some updates before i go.

This week's lectures are going really well. Our speaker, Jonathan Spainhour (the leader of the Biblical Core Course here at Reef to Outback), is leading in a week on learning how to study our bible, looking specifically at the book of Philemon. It's been great so far, i've learnt a lot of techniques for bible study, loads of random but interesting facts about the bible, and i've been given a new passion for reading it!

Finally, on sunday morning this week, i will be leaving for a 2-week camping trip in a forest 2 hours north from here. Me and the DTS are incredibly excited about this chance to go away, get to know each other even more, spend lots of time with God, and do loads of fun camping things like bonfire-watching, guitar-playing, star-gazing, river-swimming and hill-climbing! Unfortunately i'll be totally out of contact for the two weeks - but i will obviously be in touch before i go.

So that's me, hope you enjoyed the story! Please be in touch - i miss you all.

Take care and God bless,

Matt x

Prayer requests

To remember everything i learn during lectures - it's a lot of head knowledge for one week.

Time management, I'm struggling to balance communications/work/preparations for camping.

Good weather for camping. Pretty please?